un-upholstering a found Fauteuil Chair

Found two of these babies on the side of the road on election morning. Had to make the "mommy sees gold on the side of the road" u-turn. Thank goodness for vans, right?

The seats and the arms are worn through and the fabric on the back of the chair is badly faded, but I googled re-upholstering, and it seemed pretty straight forward. Time consuming and painstaking, but straight forward.

Back view!

The bottom seemed like the easiest place to start. Following advice from the hunted interior (http://thehuntedinterior.blogspot.ca/2012/03/reinventing-bergere-tutorial.html), I grabbed my needle-nose pliers and my mini crowbar....and prepared myself for staples. Many, many staples. And I was not disappointed. BUT, there were also carpet tacks. Many, many carpet tacks. The view above is after removing the black fabric covering the bottom of the chair and beginning to pry off the carpet tacks holding the fabric on.

(It was at this point that I ran inside to find something to put over my nose and mouth. There was old, rotten fabric dust everywhere. I cannot stand the work masks, so I just grabbed a nightgown and tied it around my face like a cowgirl. It was a good call.)

These chairs have a bottom that is almost entirely upholstered! The bottom part of the fabric is a separate piece!

Which is attached to the chair with more carpet tacks! 

There were 3 sides to pry off. All with cotton batting underneath. 

Now to really get into it. I started taking the main piece of fabric off the seat of the chair. I wanted to preserve the shape, so I could use it as a pattern for the new fabric. Ugh. Carpet tacks. Many, many carpet tacks.

I was able to pull this batting off in one piece, taking its tacks with it.

Eww.

I have no idea what this green fibery stuff is...

Okay, so there is wound paper nailed all around the chair. And the nails are, like, 2 inches long. So awesome. At this point I am beginning to get frustrated. Although, I must admit, the upholstery job is excellent. 50 years old, but excellent.

So after prying the wound paper off, I closed my eyes (remember, my nose and mouth are covered) and  started to pull away the old, rotty burlap. It came away easily. 

What?! Seriously, what do I do with all these springs. I also pried away the burlap from the bottom. The springs were attached to the bottom with metal things (i have no idea what they would be called)...and I just slid the end of the spring out. 

Seriously gross.

Look at all that icky stuff on the ground.

So for today, that is where I stopped. I took the bottom piece of burlap off and left the strings, so I have a chair frame with dangly, naked springs. We'll see what we can do during naptime tomorrow!